Companion Links

New Designs

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Dè Pendants

These were made by request. There were some examples in the case my wife carries to show and sell some of my jewelry. Not too practical to build the entire alphabet just on spec. Ha! It's nice to do custom work but it does mean it has to be finished in a reasonable time. Custom work goes to the head of the line. The "open" J's required some scale model testing to be certain just where the loop should go. I got it correct.

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Custom Rings

These rings are hand made custom desisgns. They are both lost wax casting first carved in wax. Slight irregularites are an identifying feature of truely hand made jewelry. However they seldome dominate the design.

The ring design on the left has been made several times. I wear one myself, but this one is new. Same size as the one on the right.

The ring on the right is a custom one off design (so far) made for a person who has a passion for brewing craft beer. He especially loves wheat beer and those are ears of wheat encircling the band. It's a design he specifically requested.

KautzCraft Studio specializes in custom carved lost wax designed rings. Look through the gallery photos and see as few examples of past designs.

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Yellow Rose of Texas

Here is a new version of the first picture (now the last, at the bottom of this column) posted here. It was this rose heart but with no color.

This is a follow up project from a first attempt with glass enameling on sterling silver. (Pegasus) This is one of three rose hearts just made. All of them truned out just fine. Very slight differences between them as they are each made by hand.

I am really loving and rocking this glass enamel work. There will be a lot more of this done by KautzCraft Studio in the future. I hope you love it as much as I do!

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Pegasus Skater

This is a first example with Glass Enameling on silver. The process is called Champlevé and is very similar to perhaps the more familiar process calle Cloisonné. It is colored glass fused to metal. I don't have any problem after studying the procedure and procuring the proper materials and tools. KautzCraft Studio has since made a dozen more of this design.

This is the Mobil Gas Pegasus which as a display sign has been a feature of downtown Dallas, Texas for many years. It has recently been renovated. My (adult) daughter is a member of a Dallas in-line skating club and this is their mascot and club name. Look closely, this is why this Pegasus is wearing in-line skates.

This pendant is almost 1.5 inches wide. Glass enameling usually has to be done on fine silver as the copper in sterling causes oxides in the high temp glass fusing process. However, there is a way to prep sterling sliver that creates a thin barier of pure silver and lets me work with the more durable sterling aloy of silver.

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Tiny Paws

This design with very tiny paw print charms was done at the request of my daughter. She and her husband share their home with two min-pin dogs and two cats. She told me something like a paw print would be a desireable pendant for like minded pet owners. I was also told she preferred something rather small.

That tempted the creation of these very tiny charms as a chalange on how small I could cast silver. They turned out quite nice to my eye.

Here we have two dog and two cats paws representing her pets. Left to right they are dog, cat, dog, cat. After doing the research, these prints are correct for each species, but not specific to any certain breed. A fun project and 12 copies of each print were made.

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Horse Head Pendant

When you look close you can see the design contains many musical symbols. The design of the horse in Texas and the music symbols tie in appropriate for my wife's personal silver collection. Note the background has been blackened to highlight the design but apears a bit lighter in this photograph. It is one inch in height.

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Finger Rings

KautzCraft Studio does make other jewelry besides pendants. Making rings is a very enjoyable project. A ring was my very first lost wax silver casting project. Here are two rings just completed for my wife Gloria. They are a Valentine present for 2016. The ring with the cross is of course, a Christian ring and the three lines (each side) represent the Trinity.The ring on the right is a hand carved twisted two strand rope signifying our togetherness for over fifty years.

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Celtic Stag

Not sure if this is a deer or an elk. Probably the latter due to the size of the antlers. It's about 1 3/4 " wide and almost 2" high. This example comes in at 33.3 grams with the bail and jump ring. All Sterling of course. Furture versions will probably be made a bit lighter by reducing the thickness. This one is massive. A good companion for the "Kelpie" water horse pendant.